223 Global News Post 3
Alanna Strickland
Haka, A. (2023) Ferdinand Ayité et Isidore Kouwonou Au Togo, deux journalistes condamnés par contumace font appel | Icilome Togo journalists Ferdinand Ayité and Joël Egah detained over online broadcast - Committee to Protect Journalists (cpj.org)
Two Togolese journalist have been issued a warrant in December of 2021 for charges on “insulting authority” and “spreading false remarks on social media” about two ministers of the country. They have been issued a sentence for three years and a fine of 3 million FCFA and they have fled the country. They are still wanted by the government and Amnesty International has called for the “quashing of the convictions.” I was not able to find much evidence for IciLome and was able to find another article from another news source called “Commitee to Protect Journalist (CPJ)” about what are the repercussions of false news and how the system of journalism works in Togo and what the charges are for crimes regarding press freedom. The second article talks about on the accusations of corruption of these two ministers but does not state what they said about them. It also talks about how press offense has been decriminalized in Togo and that they should not have been arrested in the first place. There has been a suspension of the newspaper they were a part of called L’Alternative. Overall, IciLome stays neutral in their reporting, but they are very vague about the situation while CPJ has a biased towards the journalist since their main focus is protecting journalists and their rights.